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The Supervisor and the High School 



Paper read before the annual meeting of the City Superintendents 
of Wisconsin, Madison, 1910 



BY 

H. L. TERRY 

••1 

State High School Inspector 



Issued by directiox of 
C. P. GARY 

State Superintendent 




MADISON, WIS. 

Democrat Printing Company, State Printer. 

1910 



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V^'<: 



THE SUPEKVISOK AND THE HIGH SCHOOL 



The title "The Supervisor and the High School" comes near 
est to expressing the relationship which I have in mind in the 
treatment of a few topics which have impressed themselves up- 
on me in my work of inspection and in regard to which I find 
wealmess in different schools. 

If I say ''The relation of the superintendent to the high 
schoor' I am likely to meet a difficulty which to m}^ mind is an 
exceedingly important one, and one which has seriously inter- 
fered with the success of more than one high school; I refer to 
those cases in which the supervision is di^dded between a prin- 
cipal and a superintendent, or in which the superintendent has 
turned over the management of the high school to a so-called 
principal — a most unfortunate condition for many medium 
sized schools ; for this principal is likely to be an inexperienced, 
or an untried or weak person as is shown by a willingness to ac- 
cept a lower salary than such a position should demand. The 
fact is, it recjuires as much ability to successfully manage 
a fair sized high school as it does to suj^ervise a set of grades; 
but school boards in a small system of schools are not at all will- 
ing to pay equal salaries. In my judgment, under the prevail- 
ing conditions the superintendent of a system, including per- 
haps as many as thirty-five teachers, makes a mistake, as a rule. 
:n giving up the direct responsibility for the high school, and I 
can name places which have suffered or are suffering from this 
I'ause. The superintendent might much better ask for a goo<l 
first assistant and office help to deal with a large part of the nec- 
essary red tape, and retain that personal touch and under- 
standing with teachers and pupils which there should be be- 
tween a strong head and all parts of the school. I will go still 
further and say that I believe it is a mistake for the superin- 
tendent of such a system to give up teaching entiri^ly : thnt ^b- 



personal aquaintance with pupils, the influence over them, and 
the knowledge of the condition of the school which comes from 
the intimate relationship with one or two large classes much 
more than meet the loss occasioned by lack of time to do a lit- 
tle extra supervision in other directions. 

There are two quite sharply defined relationships between the 
supervisor and the teachers and pupils. These may be distin- 
guished as personal and pedagogical, and strength in one does 
not necessarily imply strength in the other, though it is safe 
to say that good pedagogical results are very largely depend- 
ent upon the existence of the right personal relations between 
the head of the school and those under him. 

The Personal Relationship. 

The responsibility for unfavorable personal conditions and 
surroundings existing in his particular school should be a ser- 
ious question with every supervisor, and I am confident that 
in many cases its careful consideration might lead to wonder- 
ful improvement. The vital question is ''Have I done all pes-- 
sible to make the physical conditions and social relations of my 
teachers and pupils such that I can reasonably expect good 
school results?'^ 

Just now there are hundreds of young people beginning 
teaching. They are intensely in earnest and they feel that 
fhe immediate future is big with its possibilities of success or 
failure. Many of them are very young, hardly more than 
boys or girls, and they are generally strangers in the community 
in which they are located; and we all know how common is the 
attitude of social neglect toward teachers. They are likely, too, 
to have experienced the common difficulty in securing suitable' 
boarding places and find themselves in uncomfortable, incon- 
venient and unsuitable surroundings, very different from the 
pleasant homes which they have just left and which now seem 
so inviting, but so very inaccessible. Quite likely they have 
not even a recitation room which they can call their own, but 
being the youngest and newest teachers are shifted from room 
to room with the different classes. They are fortunate if the 
odds and ends of classes have not been assigned them after the 
old teachers have had their choice. Added to all this is their ig- 
norance in regard to the what and the how of the school which is 



— 5 — 

almost inevitable. Is it right to expect good work "under such 
conditions? Is it possible for the teacher to do it? 

This is no fancied condition. I find it over and over in 
every respect. I have novi' in mind a teacher new in her po- 
sition, most intensely anxious in regard to her work, who had 
been assigned seven recitations in five distinct subjects and who 
was meeting at the time of my visit about one hundred and fifty 
pupils daily. Naturally her work was unsatisfactory and the 
board discharged her at the end of the first term. Homesick, 
overloaded teachers are to be pitied; and, worse than all, ir- 
reparable damage may be done the school through them. 

Now to what extent is the supervisor responsible? Is it too 
much to say that if he has been in his position for some years 
he is mainly so- Is it too much to ask that he exert himself 
in providing for his teachers proper physical surroundings, 
good boarding places and sanitary recitation rooms, knowing 
as he does that successful school work is almost impossible with- 
out them? I have heard teachers discuss prominent superin- 
tendents on this very point, criticising the one and expressing 
appreciation of the other. Such attentions pay both in the in- 
crease in the efficiency of the teacher and the influence of the 
supervisor, and in many cases they may mean the difference 
between the success and the failure of the school with all the re- 
sulting consequences to the supervisor personally as well as to 
the school and the teachers. 

Fully as important is the personal relationship of the super- 
visor to the school as a whole. I am inclined to think that his 
influence more than all other influences combined determines 
the general attitude and spirit of the school. I do not under- 
rate the effect of the previous condition of the school or of the 
traditions which have become almost laws, or of local environ- 
ment; but when I see what has been done in cases which 1 
could name in changing the whole atmosphere in a single year 
hy the substitution of one principal for another I am led to be- 
lieve that these are used altogether too much as excuses for 
personal shortcomings and poor workmanship. Nevertheless, 
the results of bad management, shiftlessness and low standards 
of character of a man at the head of a school do not always dis- 
appear the first year after he leaves, but may continue to exist 
for a long time unless the successor is an unusually strong man, 
and other conditions are favorable. I remember a case in 



— 6 



vvhicli the i)resident of the school board in one of our promi- 
nent towns asked me for judgment of his high school As one 
characterization I described the high school as being "sporty". 
He fully agreed and at once began to lay the blame upon a man 
who was superintendent a few years ago, making very specific 
statements to establish the truth of his accusation. From my 
knowledge of the circumstances I think he was right and that 
the responsibility for the condition of the school lay largely at 
the door of that ex-superintendent. 

Again, popularity w^ith a school is not a, safe measure of the 
success of a supervisor in the establishment of the right school 
spirit. The school president referred to above also spoke of 
the work of a man in former years who was at the time exceed- 
ingly unpopular with a large part of the community, but whose 
school now, after years have gone by and long after his work 
in the world is done, stands as a standard of excellence in the 
minds of the thoughtful of his ex- students, and is contrasted 
sharply with what has been done since. A supervisor may be 
"Hail fellow well met" wdth his pupils and perhaps with the 
community in general and at the same time his schools may be 
in a demoralized condition. On the other hand, it is true that 
without a prepcnderance of sentiment in his favor he usually 
might as well give up. 

The supervisor should be the guiding force in all of the so- 
cial matters relating to or connected with his school, not always 
directly but often better by making his teachers the prominent- 
factors, seeing to it that they get into right relationships with 
the pupils. Many a teacher is neglected socially in the school 
and is lonesome and disappointed in her work simply because 
no part has been given her of social duty for which she will be 
held responsible. These are not minor matters and the wise 
men among the supervisors are coming to realize, as never be- 
fore, what real social efficiency in the management of a school 
means, and the effect which a thorough organization oi* a schoci 
faculty under the guidance of a responsible head has on the 
scholarship and character of the pupils and. incidentally upon 
the attitude of the teachers toward their work. Such an organ- 
ization of work gives opportunity for bringing about that uni- 
fication of the teaching fo^^ee whir-h I fi^d in Fome schools 
und which- is absent in others; it makes a teacher feel 
that she is something more than a mere cog in a wheel driven 



hy some unseen relentless force, but that she is a living ele- 
ment in the school, expected to think for herself and to assume 
a part of the responsitility for the success of the whole even 
though it leads outside of the recitation room. Again this so- 
cial work brings about that personal acquaintanceship which 
will overcome that fear of the superisor which teachers so often 
feel. As long as this exists there can not be that hearty sym- 
pathy which will enable suggestions to be given and received 
as they should be, and which is absolutely necessarj^ before 
the teacher can look upon the supervisor as a real helper and 
friend who ^an be appealed to without loss of professional 
prestige. Something of the relation of the taskmaster and 
drudge is too often plainly in evidence. 

The Pedagogical Relationship. 

It would seem that every one connected wnth school work 
must realize that the continuous and increasingly insistent 
criticism of the schools is gradually becoming more definite 
and specific in the nature of its accusations and demands. 
Everywhere we see adjustment in the form of special courses 
and special schools some wise and perhaps more unwise, in re- 
sponse to these more or less clearly formulated criticisms. 

It is not difficult to read these signs of the times. They in- 
dicate the gro\\i;h of a business-like attitude toward the schools 
on the part of the public; there is to be less of a blind follow- 
ing of tradition, and less toleration of the merely formal and 
mechanical and more of an insistence upon the application in 
the administration of our schools of principles which miderlie 
the conduct of successful enterprises in commercial life. The 
vague, almost meaningless terms such as culture, character 
and mental discipline which have been so freely used in estimat- 
ing educational values are no longer being accepted, and they 
must be replaced by expressions which have a clear, tangible 
meaning to the average person, and by which educational re- 
sults can be measured and the different studies of the 
lourse justified. The Avord character must be replaced by 
words denoting the elements of character, and the value of an 
exercise or study as a means of character fonnation will be 
measured by its efficiency in giving training in forming habits 
of honesty, accuracy, promptness, courtesy, independent think- 



— 8 — 

ing and other fundamental essentials of success in life. The 
so-called practical values of a study will be measured by the 
extent to which they are actually used in meeting the needs of 
life both in school and afterwards. Colleges will demand for 
preparation what they actually make use of in their college 
work and will rightfully demand that that shall be well done. 

"We may call such ideas commercial and utilitarian, and de- 
cline to accept them as standards of measurement in reaching 
high educational ideals; but they are the ideas which govern 
the world to-day and which have brought about the wonderful 
improvements, educational as well as well as others, of the 
last hundred years; and their influence over the schools is in- 
creasing every year. 

If these demands continue in their present trend, and there is 
every reason to think they will, it is evident that their effect 
upon the supervisor will be revolutionary. He will be required 
10 turn out from the factory called a school a certain product, 
young men and women, equipped with a body of definite 
usable knowledge and with proper habits so firmly fixed that 
they may be depended upon in times of stress and strain; 
and his success will be measured as in the case of any other 
factory by the product he turns out. There will always be a 
great loss in working with variable human nature, but it is 
safe to say that the present amount of waste of time, energj^ 
?nd valuable material will not be tolerated in the near future, 
and that the per cent of dividends niust be largely increased or 
thie factories will go out of business in their present form. 

The great leaders are those who are able to anticipate the fu- 
ture and to be the first in preparation to meet new demands and 
conditions as they come. Our best supervisors today are thosb 
who realize that it is their duty, as never before to be able to 
do with their teachers just what the superintendent of the com- 
mercial factory does with his workers in wood and iron — to 
state clearly what product he wants and to see that that prod- 
uct is turned out in an economical and efficient manner. Sueh^ 
a supervisor will realize what an amount of work and ability 
this implies. It means hard continuous study of the educational 
value of every subject of the course as long as his adminis 
tration lasts, for these values are now many of them so vague 
and unsettled that even a place in the curriculum is denied to 
some subjects which have been heretofore considered almost in- 



dispensable. He must be able to answer the legitimate ques- 
tions asked by the thoughtful pupils and their parents, "What 
is the use of this study?'' ''What should it do for me if I do 
my work we]]?", and he must answer these questions in terms 
which can be clearly understood and which will appeal to the 
questioner as being worth while from his (the pupil's) stand- 
point. The day is fast passing when high school pupils will be 
required to do what to them is meaningless work simply be- 
cause it is the custom. Neither will they be asked to do such 
work merely for some profound pedagogical purpose whick 
only the instructor may have in mind. 

in manual training I see a purpose back of every movement 
of the tool; in the mind of the teacher, perhaps a profound 
educational purpose not at all thought of by the pupil; in the 
mind of the pupil a more limited one, the table or cabinet which 
he is making, which is for him the objective point — the real 
purpose through which the results are brought about; the for- 
mer becomes an incidental result of the latter. In algebra T 
see vagueness and uncertainty, a blind groping for some result 
imperfectly comprehended by both teacher and pupil. The 
natural outcome is the fire of criticism which algebra is now 
receiving simply because of the lack of appreciation of its edu- 
cational value by the supervisor and poor workmanship by the 
teacher. I believe it is possible to have as clearly defined pur- 
poses which can be appreciated by the pupil in nearly or quite 
all of the academic studies as we have in manual training. The 
pupil's purpose, however, may not be at all the same as that 
in the mind of the teacher. 

Whatever may be the needs of the future, one of the greatest 
needs of today is a better understanding by supervisors of the 
possibilities in the old line studies in the way of purposes and 
values leading to ''bread and butter" results, coupled with the 
ability to see that these are reached in their schools. There 
should be less juggling with courses of study and more atten- 
tion to, and I will add independence in, securing possibilities 
while we are waiting for the gradual development of advanced 
ideas now being discussed. 

In addition to a knowledge of values the supervisor must 
have the energy and activity to see that they are secured. 
This means inspection and conference followed by inspection 
and conference continued. A school can not be supervised by 



10 



a>:suiiim<4' that teachers understand their business so well that 
they do not need supervision and direction. Something more 
is necessary than a printed course of study even when this is 
fully discussed in the teachers' meeting. A supervisor's ability 
may be gauged fairly well by his ability to make a fair or a 
good teacher out of a distinctly poor one, due allowance being 
made for the incorrigibles who can not be helped by any human 
means. AVhen teachers can report, as they have done to me^ 
that during a whole semester or even a whole year they have not 
had a visit of fifteen consecutive minutes by the supervisor and 
perhaps have had none at all during that time, there is some- 
thing wrong with the head of the school, and I fail to see how 
lie is earning the small salary with which he is so dissatisfied 
On the other hand, when I am told of the practice of a certain 
supervisor in this state of visiting the same class for several suc- 
cessive days I feel that if this has been done, not in the spirit of 
hostile criticism, but in an attitude which calls out the best work 
])y the teachers and pupils. I can safely assume that that man 
has some appreciation at least of the responsibilities and 
opportunities of his office. In addition he has a basis upon 
-which he can intelligently direct and help the teacher. 

The office of the true supervisor is not a sinecure. It seems 
to me that I know of no other person who requires so great a 
combination of rare qualities for genuine success. He 
must be a strong teacher to appreciate purposes and methods ; 
he must be a man of the world having a knowledge of 
the needs, varying ages, natures and conditions of life, with 
ability to meet all classes of people upon their level of thought; 
he must have sympathy and tact to be able to secure the earnest, 
united efforts of teachers and pupils, and above all he must be a 
man worthy of the admiration and respect of teachers, pupils 
and community. It can not be expected that any one man will 
possess superlative ability in all of these particulars, but using 
this ideal as a standard the success of the supervisor as relat6d 
to ideal success will be measured by the extent to which he pos- 
sesses these qualities. 



iiSS^aay ^^ congress 



021 773 479 1 



